Woman and Equality: North of England

(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Andrew Gwynne)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. I am grateful to be responding for the Government to this vital discussion brought to the House today by my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham (Mary Kelly Foy) about the issues raised by the “Woman of the North” report. The report highlights the challenges facing women across the northern regions of England and I am pleased that the Government’s women’s health ambassador, Professor Dame Lesley Regan, delivered a keynote speech at the report’s launch in September, in which she spoke about the importance of addressing the health inequalities faced by women living in the north of England.

While the report brings into focus the striking health inequalities that women in the north contend with, our Government are committed to addressing those regional inequalities head on. I will be clear, up front, that the conditions outlined in the report are unacceptable in a country as resourceful as ours. Women in the north face stark inequalities, not just in health but, as we heard from my hon. Friend, in economic security and social support. Our response must be to tackle those on multiple fronts, and that work has already begun.

We are committed to working across Government to tackle wider inequalities that lead to poor health, focusing our health and care system on preventing ill health, shifting more care into the community and intervening earlier in life to raise the healthiest generation of children in our country’s history. We will improve healthy life expectancy for all and halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between different regions of England.

The Government are committed to prioritising women’s health as we build an NHS that is fit for the future, and women’s equality will be at the heart of our missions. We are considering how to take forward the women’s health strategy developed by the last Administration, but we want to align it with the Government’s missions and the forthcoming 10-year health plan. The report is therefore timely. As my hon. Friend set out so powerfully, reducing inequalities must be a central focus in our strategy going forward. We will carefully consider each of the report’s recommendations as we do that, and I will ensure that Ministers across Government have sight of the report and consider those recommendations that relate to their policy areas.

My hon. Friend mentioned women’s health hubs, which will be key to improving access to women’s health services and reducing the inequalities we care so passionately about tackling. They will do that by providing a set of integrated women’s health services in the community, centred on meeting women’s needs across their life. The Department has invested £25 million over the past year and over 2024-25 to support the establishment of at least one pilot women’s health hub in every integrated care system. I am pleased to say that integrated care systems in the north of England are making good progress on setting up their pilot hubs. For example, the funding is being used to set up three pilot hubs—two in Sunderland and Gateshead in the north-east and one in north Cumbria—with a strong focus on tackling inequalities and community outreach.

My hon. Friend also mentioned smoking, which is a huge driver of inequalities in too many communities, particularly, but not exclusively, in the north of England. She is right, and I can confirm—on the day the tobacco and vapes Bill receives its First Reading—that good-quality smoking cessation services remain a big part of the jigsaw in achieving a smoke-free UK. I can report that financial incentives are working well.

I mentioned some of the wider social inequalities that underpin poorer health chances, as did the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). It is shocking that a woman in the north, working full time, may earn £56 less per week than the national average, and £188 less than a woman in London. Every part of the country has a vital contribution to make to our economy, but too many areas have been held back because decisions are often taken here in Westminster and not by local leaders who understand the ambitions, strengths and opportunities—and the weaknesses and threats—of the local population.

That is why the new Labour Government are committed to empowering local government, enabling it to pursue growth, create jobs and improve living standards, with support from central resources. Providing central support where needed, we will ensure that the places we are talking about have the strong governance arrangements, capacity and capability to deliver. In addition, as my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out in our first Budget last week, the national living wage will increase from £11.44 to £12.21 next April. That boost—one of the largest since the creation of the national minimum wage in 1998—benefits women, who make up a significant proportion of minimum wage earners.

Turning to mental health and domestic violence, the “Woman of the North” report revealed stark challenges facing northern women, with rising rates of mental illness and domestic violence. We have committed to taking a number of important measures to improve support for women, which we are already introducing those across Government. We are committed to an NHS that is responsive and accessible, with 8,500 new mental health workers to reduce waiting times, and a specialist mental health professional in every school. Young Futures hubs in every community will also offer open-access mental health support for young people, including girls.

Recognising healthcare’s role as a frontline for survivors, all NHS staff undertake mandatory safeguarding training, which includes a focus on domestic abuse. Furthermore, my Department has published and disseminated a working definition of trauma-informed practice for the health and care sector. NHS integrated care boards enable provision of more integrated services for victims and survivors. The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 also places a new legal duty on integrated care boards to work with local authorities and with police and crime commissioners to join up the commissioning of victim support services.

One of the most striking points raised in the report is the extraordinary burden of unpaid care on northern women. Women who give over 50 hours a week in care duties deserve our utmost respect, as well as the support of this Government, and we are working to ensure that they have it. Our recent increase in the earnings threshold for carer’s allowance will help 60,000 more carers to maintain work while receiving financial support. For the first time, carers can now earn more without reducing hours, due to minimum wage rises. That will bring much-needed financial stability to carers and allow them to retain their links to the labour market, which is crucial.

We will continue to monitor and respond to the needs of carers, ensuring that they have the resources to support their families and wider communities. Moving forward, we will continue to assess the needs of carers, in the north and beyond, to ensure that we are offering tangible, effective assistance to those unsung heroes.

I put on record that the Government’s commitment to our northern communities, and to the women who drive them forward, is unwavering. We recognise that the strength of our nation rests on the health, security and potential of all women, regardless of where they live. But we know, as northern MPs, the stark inequalities that are far too prevalent in far too many parts of the regions that make up the north of England. For women in the north of England, we will ensure that we rebalance not only their health outcomes but the economic opportunities offered to them. It is not a matter only of justice, but of building a society that values every woman’s contribution equally and that provides her with the means to thrive.

Let me affirm that this Government, and I as the Minister responsible for public health and prevention—albeit a man—stand ready to support the women of the north, and every woman in this country, by addressing the entrenched inequalities that hold too many women back. Through our co-ordinated efforts across health, economic policy and social care, we will see the real benefits of a mission-led Government who do not work in silos but across the whole of Government to tackle the needs of the citizen—in this case women, including women in the north—as we march towards the decade of national renewal that the country voted for on 4 July.

That co-ordinated effort will be across health, economic policy, social care, housing, planning, transport, the environment and all public policy, such as education, skills and training. We will work towards a future where all women, wherever they are in this country—although I and my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham are northerners, and this debate is about the north of England—can look forward to lives filled with good health, economic security and the opportunity to achieve their potential.

I will leave the House with just one thought. On my first day as public health Minister, I had lots of presentations to bring me up to speed on a range of policy areas, and the first was on life expectancy. There was a simple bar chart that showed two women: one who has the privilege of living in a less deprived part of England and one who has the misfortune of living in a more deprived part of England. The life expectancy of the woman in the less deprived part was just shy of 80—79.9 on average. For the other woman, it was 70—10 years were shorn off her life.

But that was not the most shocking part of the chart. The two bars were shaded in part in orange, which signified the healthy life expectancy of the two women. The woman who lives to nearly 80 in the less deprived part of England falls into ill health at 75. All of her working adult life is spent in good health, and she falls into ill health only in the final five years of her life. The other woman, who lives to 70, falls into ill health at 52. That shocked me to the core. Those are not statistics; they are people—people I and my hon. Friend represent. Indeed, there are inequalities across the country, and they are people you too represent, Sir Christopher.

Each person falling into ill health with another 15 or 16 years of adult working life to go is a tragedy on a personal level. It is the economics of the madhouse, because those people have potential—they have economic ability and hopes and dreams that are whipped away because of inequalities. It is the duty of Government to push that orange bar as close to retirement age as possible for those women, and preferably into retirement age. Look, let’s be ambitious: let’s put sickness beyond death. It is the duty of Government to tackle those health inequalities. I hope I have assured the House, and my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham, that while I am in this ministerial post, it will be my No. 1 aim to make sure that we live healthier, happier, longer lives. Here’s to the women of the north.

Question put and agreed to.